How Dhooghe Does It

If Sean Dhooghe wasn’t 5-foot-3, he may be shuffling around the crease instead of deking past defenders.

When Sean was young, playing goalie was his passion. His parents discouraged it, limiting his goaltending exploits to backyard games or in-house scrimmages. Eventually when Sean became a teenager, he realized that, because of his size, he had to become a forward.

“They were like, ‘No, you’re not going to become a goalie, we’re not going to down that path,’” his older brother, Jason, says.

“It had to have been when he like the teenage years when he realized that even with his size, goalie wasn’t going to happen. He realized he was just going to be more of a threat offensively.”

And he did become a threat offensively. Now Sean is over midway through his first collegiate season and has 12 points through 23 games.

The 5-foot-3 frame was never limiting for Sean, but he has heard others dismiss him since he was just 10 years old.

There were those who said he would never play midget hockey. Then there were those who told him he would never play junior hockey. Then, when Sean played for the U.S. National Team Development Program, there were those who said he would never play college hockey.

“It’s definitely motivation,” Sean says. “I’m always up for a challenge like that and I think at the end of the day, proving people wrong is going to be the most satisfactory to me so I’m excited to do that.”

Now when Sean skates, he has no worries jostling against other players a foot taller or swooping past them to score.

“When he’s on the ice and he’s playing games and he looks at the guy across …